Flying Fijians skipper Waisea Nayacalevu admits his side’s failure to execute the game plan resulted in their narrow 24-23 loss to Portugal in the final Rugby World Cup Pool C match in France today.
Despite the loss, Fiji has qualified for World Cup quarterfinals for the third time in the history of the 36-year old competition.
Nayacalevu concedes that his side has a lot of improvements ahead of their match against England next Monday.
“We definitely need to work on our weaknesses. We will have to try to work fast with the big game next week,” Nayacalevu told World Rugby in a post-match interview.
“We did not execute our plays, we dropped a lot of balls and Portugal took advantage of our mistakes to counter us. What happened today was hard on the soul.”
“We are going back to look at our mistakes and work on them. We have qualified now and we have to switch our focus to next week. Go back and find our fine-tuning for next week, regroup and refocus again to take up to the next level.”
Nayacalevu acknowledged Portugal for putting up a good show and register their first-ever historic World Cup win.
Nayacalevu also thanked the Fijian fans for turning out in numbers at Stade de Toulouse and those who stuck to their television sets back home supporting the team.
“Giving back the appreciation to Jesus Christ for today.”
“Thank you to all the fans for your support from you back home. We ask you to forgive us for our shortfall today and support us in the week ahead.”
“I just want to say thank you to all the supporters that came out today to support here in France and everyone at home.”
“Congratulations to Portugal. Hats off to them. They really played well today. I salute them.”
Fiji will meet England in the quarterfinal at 3am in Stade de Toulouse next Monday.
